Erie County Low Income Program for Sustainable

Energy (ECLIPSE): A Perspective on Community

Choice Aggregation

Eric WalkerDirector of Energy Development and Management

Department of Public Works, Erie County

Before we get started...What this presentation is NOT: • A review of CCA mechanics • A presentation of a case study

What this presentation IS:• Presenting a value

proposition• Outlining a comparative

advantage • Proposing a method for

creating evidence based practice

Community Choice Aggregation in a nutshell

At the core, CCA is just

Click to add text

Source: Independent Energy Consultants

ECLIPSE Components

• Bulk purchasing of natural gas and electricity• Economies of scale for purchasing energy for HEAP

recipients• Coordinating energy efficiency services for LMI

populations• Renewable energy adoption

• Community shared solar• Leverage county’s position as financial

intermediary• Designing and delivering value-added services

Basic approach to formation• Investigating CCA formation• Community Energy Planning• Developing an CCA implementation plan• Outreach and Marketing• Documentation and Evaluation

So, if CCA is happening and being contemplated across the state,what's unique here?

ECLIPSE has big goals beyond bulk purchasing

• Drive benefits of the CCA to vulnerable households• Simultaneously lower greenhouse gas emissions and

community energy intensity as the project matures• Foster interdepartmental and intergovernmental

collaboration• Contribute to improved the health of disparate

populations• Using the lens of the Social Determinants of Health

Bringing together unlikely partnerships

• Collaborative effort of government (Erie County) and academia (Buffalo State)

• Simultaneously lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve the health of disparate populations• Using the lens of the Social Determinants of Health

Inspired policy drives bold action• Show side-by-side of I4SE & I4SC

Big Picture – Why this matters

http://bit.ly/1R6B54I

Social vulnerability to climate change in Erie County

Big Picture – What’s the big problem

USGCRP, 2016: The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment.

Research Support

Big Picture – What’s the big problem

Big Picture – What’s the big problem

Erie County (2015)

Individual Shortfall

Number of Households

Aggregate Shortfall

Home Energy Burden

Less than 50% of FPL

$1,226 26,508 $32,491,886 23.7%

50% - 99% of FPL

$862 29,750 $25,629,818 12.6%

100% - 124% of FPL

$471 15,266 $7,194,217 8.4%

125% - 149% of FPL

$211 16,405 $3,462,956 6.9%

150% - 184% of FPL

- 22,600 - 5.7%

185% - 199% of FPL

- 8,876 - 4.9%

119,405 $68,778,877

Home Energy Affordability Gap

Fisher, Sheehan & Colton, April 2016

What makes Erie County think it's such a good fit for developing a low income centered CCA?

We're already a convenor

We have a built-in multi channel marketing apparatus

And our target demographic generally comes to us!

We're already an aggregator!• Erie County already bulk purchases natural gas and

electricity for over two dozen municipalities in Western New York • Approximately 1.6 BCF of natural gas

• Includes 678,000 MCF thru the Public Assistance Cooperative for Energy (PACE)

• 219 million kWh (calendar 2015)

So, what's your big idea?

Big Picture

Data as a way to solve problems Cumulative hardship of basic

needsMany programs and efforts to

mitigate problems Data helps us find what is

impactful

Data, Dashboards, Evaluation

• Integrated, multi-level data collection and evaluation framework• Bridge between business, government and scientific

communities• Data-driven decision-making

• Continuous quality improvement• Results-based Accountability to link program performance metrics and

aligned population-level outcomes

Data, Dashboards, Evaluation

• We can’t robustly test the outcomes• Align data to help us understand the contribution of the program’s efforts

to changing the outcomes• Make data useful!

• Prioritize disparate populations, including by geography• Identify where/with who the program can make the biggest impacts

How much did we do?

Program Performance Measures

How welldid we do it?

Is anyonebetter off?

Quantity Quality

Effe

ct

E

ffort

# %

What we get if we're lucky

Source: IBM Center for Applied Insights, 2011

Open Data

• In the data and analyses, plus the methodology• Interactive visualizations and data interface for program

metrics • Participation• Utilization and cost savings• Greenhouse gas emissions• Survey data of program participants on health and behavior• Generative information for the development of "value added-

services"

Transparency

• Beyond internal decision-making, convey economic and health impacts for:• Consumers• Policy-makers• Health professionals• Tax payers• Other stakeholders

• Changing the narrative the clean energy future• Beyond the privilege of consumptive decision making

Thank you!